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How To Hide IP Address: Your Complete Guide

January 15, 2017

Why you want to hide your IP address

There are multiple browser fingerprints that websites track on a daily basis. These include browser cookies, Javascript objects, canvas fingerprint, font list and many others. However, when it comes to tracking your computer, usually the first thing that websites log and look at is your IP address. The reason behind this is that it is easily obtainable and it can reveal a lot of information about you, such as your physical location and internet service provider. Many other data points can be deducted from these two. If you are using the same IP address for multiple accounts on the same platform, it will “know” that all accounts are likely to belong to the same person.

To protect your multiple identities, it is essential to use different and unique IP addresses. Technically, your computer cannot have more than one IP address at once. This is why different solutions exist to channel your traffic through a remote machine, which has a different IP address than yours.

IP information consitency

Now, when you are aware of the differences between datacenter and residential IP addresses and understand the importance of hiding your real IP address, let’s introduce the concept of IP information consistency. Modern popular web platforms are aware that users tend to choose easily memorable passwords or use the same password all over the internet. This naturally makes hacking into accounts easy. To protect users from the hacking threat, web platforms record connection information and browser fingerprints they receive from users’ computers. When suddenly this information changes to a great extent, a web platforms throws in additional security checks like phone verification or a secret question. Although designed for protection, this can make managing multiple profiles more difficult.

Usually, the easiest way to trigger the security checks is to access an account with an IP address, which belongs to the area it was never previously accessed from. Thus, the rule of thumb when accessing your multiple accounts will be to keep the same IP address for any particular account as long as possible.

Of course, keeping the same IP address for an account is not possible if you are using a dynamic IP address, which usually belongs to the ranges of residential IPs. In this case, make sure you access the account with IP addresses, which all correspond to the same city or state.

This sums up the theoretical part. Please continue on to learn how to setup different solutions to hide your IP address.

Datacenter IP solutions

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

VPN stands for virtual private network, a connection type, which is oftentimes used by companies to protect their sensitive data while transferring it over the internet. However, VPN can be also used to change your IP address and make you seem, like you are accessing the website from a different location and service provider. In order to get a VPN, you can either subscribe to a service or setup your own VPN server. In case, you are going for the service option, your provider will give you access to their client software, which you install on your computer. You will then use this client to connect to a selected VPN server, thus obtaining a new IP address.

Pros and Cons of VPN for multiple account management

Pros

Cons

1. Access to hundreds or even thousands of unique IP addresses within the same relatively cheap subscription

1. You will not be able to open multiple profiles with unique IP addresses at the same time. You will have to work one profile at a time, which can be pretty time consuming

2. The connection is encrypted. Your internet service provider will not be able to track you.

2. In most cases, a VPN server is used by hundreds or thousands users simultaneously. Chances are some of them are abusing web platforms, which leads to the server IP being grey- or blacklisted.

Conclusion: using VPN service might be beneficial in some cases, when you need a cheap access to a big pool of IPs located at different countries. However, VPN exit nodes are mostly known to web platforms and oftentimes blacklisted due to other users abusing the service.

Recommended VPN services

Generally, we don’t recommend VPN over proxies to Multiloginapp users. However, if you believe a VPN suits your needs better, here are two service providers we can recommend. Both have an excellent quality of service and customer support:

Please note that we are not responsible for their quality of any services. Perform your own due diligence before using any of the 3rd party services.

How to use VPN with Multiloginapp?

Keep in mind, that each time you switch a VPN server; you will have a different IP address. Therefore, in order to keep IP information consistent for a particular profile, make sure to use the same VPN server when opening this profile.

Install the software from your VPN provider and launch it.

Use the VPN client to choose the server to which you want to be connected to.

When creating a browser profile, make sure to leave the “Proxy type” field blank.

Access the browser profile and verify that the IP shown on the green welcome screen belongs to the chosen VPN server.

Remember the Profile/VPN server pair and always use the same server for this browser profile.

Proxies

Proxy server is another machine with a distinct IP address, which acts as a hub between your computer and the rest of the internet. When you connect to websites through a proxy server, they will see proxy server’s IP address as your IP. Same as VPN, you can either buy proxies or set-up your own. In both cases, you will have a list of IP addresses, ports and authorisation methods, which you will use to connect.

Proxy properties

Type of Authentication

When connecting to a proxy, there is a need to authenticate your access to it. You do not want everybody to be able to connect to your proxy. Usually, there are 2 types of authentication to access a proxy: IP authentication or Username & Password authentication. We recommend the use of Username & Password, as this solves the problem of having a dynamic IP connection and constantly needing to update your computer access IP address.

Type of Access

Usually, proxy providers offer three types of proxies: Public, Shared and Private. Technically they are mostly identical but can be used by different audiences. Public proxies can be accessed by anybody – these proxies usually get blacklisted very quickly. Shared proxies can only be accessed by certain number of people. Private proxies can be accessed only by you. Finally, some proxy providers offer the so-called “virgin proxies”. According to their claims, virgin proxies have never been used before with the web platform of your interest. We recommend the use of Private proxies – as it drastically decreases the chance of that IP being blacklisted or blocked on some particular website. Regardless of what anybody says or claims, always perform your own testing to see which proxy servers work best for your purposes.

Type of Connection/Protocol

In terms of connection or protocol, proxies also categorize on SOCKS and HTTP proxies. Both work equally well, when using for accessing multiple accounts through browser applications.

Using datacenter IP proxies for multiple account management

Pros

Cons

1. Easy to use for multiple accounts

1. No encryption. Your internet service provider will still be able look into your traffic

2. You will be able to open multiple profiles with unique IP addresses simultaneously from one PC

2. Bought proxies are not always very reliable. They may go down and you will have to ask for replacement. Test multiple providers to learn which does a better job.

3. IP information consistency is very good. Your accounts are always accessed from the same IP address.

3. Websites might be able to discover that you are connecting through a datacenter proxy.

4. Cheaper compared to other residential solutions.

Conclusion: Use datacenter proxies, if you want to keep your multiple accounts for longer periods and access them on a daily basis. Datacenter IP proxies are cheaper than residential IP ones, which comes at the price of less naturally looking connection. Both types of proxies are more convenient to use with Multiloginapp than VPN.

Keep in mind that we are not responsible for their quality of service. Perform your own due diligence before using any of the 3rd party services recommended in this article.

In-House Solution

When using proxies offered as a service, you are essentially putting yourself into a risk of two things:

The proxies can be blacklisted on the website you are trying to access

The proxy server goes down either temporarily or permanently

To mitigate both risks, you may create your own fresh proxy server with a clean IP. This method is more expensive than buying from proxy providers. However, it puts you in charge over your proxies and removes the chance of your proxies being blacklisted due to abuse by other people.

Things you will need before getting started

VPS with at least 256MB RAM (512MB recommended), Debian 8.0 x64 with a dedicated IP address.There are plenty of VPS services on the internet. You do not need a high-performance one – just choose the one that has at least 256MB RAM. All of the parameters, like RAM, IP address and OS (Debian 8.0 x64) can be selected, when setting up your VPS. We absolutely recommend refraining from buying a VPS from low end providers. More often than not, their IP address pools are heavily abused by previous customers, thus blacklisted by many web platforms.

Root access to your VPSYou should have credentials in the following (similar) format:
IP Address: 112.113.114
Username: root
Password: a1b2c3d4e5

After you have gained accesses to your VPS, you can now set-up your own proxy server using instructions provided here.

Don’t want to bother with manually installing a proxy server?

Subscribe to our blog and we will provide you with an automatic proxy installation script and other useful goodies.

Residential IP proxies

In the above sections, we have outlined two main methods on how you can change your IP addresses using datacenter IP proxies. However, in many cases you will want to utilize residential IP proxies for connecting to web platforms. In this section, we will outline a few methods how to setup a connection with a residential IP address.

Residential ADSL connection with dynamic IP address

The cheapest and the easiest method of obtaining a pool of residential IPs is setting up your home or office connection with a big internet service provider (ISP) that offers a dynamic IP connection.

This way you will have access to thousands of IP ranges, which are also used by other people. For example, if you reside in a city that has a population of 200,000 people. Half of them access some particular major web platform every day by using a pool of around 1,000-5,000 IP-s released by the ISPs in that city. It’s clear why this particular web platform will never base their tracking decisions solely on your IP address. If it does so, it runs the risk of suspecting a lot of real users in the process as well. Also, because different IP-s will come from the same city, there is very little chance of triggering any type of verification, when doing consecutive login attempts. Consequently, IP becomes unrelated in such cases and the platform’s tracking decisions will be mostly derived from factors such as browser fingerprinting and account activity.

Although, this method is heavily used by a lot of Multiloginapp users, it seemingly remains inconsistent in implementation across multiple users. This is due to the fact whether this method will work or not will heavily depend on the ISP you are using. Because different ISP companies function in different ways you may always encounter different problems. The most common one is that despite having a dynamic IP connection, your IP will stick with you for days, weeks and even months no matter what you do to obtain a new one.

This why, we do not go into in-depth details on how to make the process more efficient. If you are practically interested in this method, you will have to do your own due diligence, research and test different ISPs.

Considering the problems and issues with this method, we will still provide some guidance in making the process more efficient. If you are interested in this method, please read on.

Controlling IP releases

The fact that you have a dynamic IP address means that your IP address will periodically change. Your goal here is to get a new IP address at will. For example, when switching between browser profiles, you usually want to have a new IP address each one to avoid being linked.

Controlling IP releases not always depends on your efforts. Sometimes it just boils down to the ISP and the modem/router you are using. Here are a couple of tips, which may help you choose the right ISP and modem or router.

Ultimately, you need an ADSL connection, which gives you a new IP address, whenever you restart the connection. This is something that depends entirely on your ISP. Therefore if you want to use this method, be prepared to test the frequency of IP change with multiple companies to find the most suitable one.

This may work with cable connection as well

When choosing a modem/router, we recommend one that supports some or all of the following features:

Telnet connection (or open port 23) – this will enable you to write custom batch files, which will renew your IP addresses

Has a feature of releasing and renewing IP addresses by a click of a button

Router has a feature of automatically renewing your IP every X minutes/hours/days

Once you have a new internet connection with a big enough IP pool and which give you a new IP address whenever you restart a router, you have the following options to control the release of new residential IP addresses:

Restart the router

Release and renew your IP in the router settings

Issue commands to release and renew IP through Telnet connection or command prompt

Change your MAC address every time you need a new IP address. A great freeware tool for this is TMAC, which is available

Automatically set up the router to get a new IP every X minutes/hours/days. You will need to look in router or modem Settings (under LAN/WAN) and find a setting that says: DHCP server lease time or something along those lines. Set the lease time to whatever option you prefer Please note that times are sometime pre-determined and not all routers support this.

Finally, to use it with Multiloginapp, you just leave proxy settings off, like in the case of using a VPN and connect your computer to your newly acquired internet connection. Furthermore, if you want to do everything remotely, you may want to install Multiloginapp on a separate machine and access it through TeamViewer.

MRI Method (Mobile Residential IP Method)

Mobile residential IP method is very similar to the residential ADSL connection method outlined above. It will also give you access to a pool of thousands of residential IPs. However, it is more practical, more consistent with implementation and usually cheaper.

First thing you should do is to get an Android phone with a fast mobile internet connection. Thereafter, you connect it to a PC using tethering or a back-connect proxy installed on your Android phone. Unlike in the case of ADSL connection, you will get a new IP address every time you restart your mobile connection. It is not guaranteed to work with all mobile internet providers across the world but usually it is the case according to both our own testing and Multiloginapp user reports. On most Android phones restarting the connection should be enough to get a new IP. If it didn’t work, try turning Airplane mode off and then back on.

There are two ways you can access this connection remotely. First, same as with ADSL connection, you need to install Multiloginapp and the mobile connection on a separate PC and then access it through TeamViewer. Second, you can turn your mobile connection into a back-connect proxy, which you can use to remotely access the residential IP addresses of your mobile phone. The main benefit of this method is that it completely eliminates a computer in the middle. In this section we will show you how to setup everything in the right way.

However, first we need to discuss how to control the IP releases remotely.

Controlling IP releases remotely

If you plan to access the mobile connection remotely, you should learn how to control the IP relases without having a direct access to the phone. Below we explain how you can “tell” your phone to get a new IP address by simply opening a link in a browser.

Add the same task one more time: Click “Add Task” (The plus icon on the bottom) -> Click “Net” -> Mobile Data -> In “Set” field chose Toggle -> Save

Let the Tasker App run on background

And you are ready! Now, whenever you open your API link in a browser, the app will notify Tasker to restart your mobile internet connection. A new IP address will be assigned to your phone then. You can be thousand miles away from your phone, however, if you access that link – your mobile internet connection will always restart.

With some Android phones you will not be able to get a new IP address by simply restarting the data settings. However, switching airplane mode on and off also gets you a new IP every time. This method seems to be more consistent across different devices. You can automate this task with Tasker as well. Just follow these instructions when setting up a task for your profile:

Add the same task one more time: Click “Add Task” (The plus icon on the bottom) -> Click “Net” -> Airplane mode -> In “Set” field chose Toggle -> Save

Turning your smartphone into a back-connect proxy

Using Multiloginapp on a separate computer through TeamViewer, which is also connected to the mobile internet, can become tedious and time consuming. Luckily, we designed a method to eliminate the in-the-middle PC completely. With this method you will be able to access your residential mobile IPs by simply using a back-connect proxy.

The general idea behind this method is that you install a VPN (Virtual Private Network) client on your mobile phone and then connect your computer to that VPN. Please note that hereafter we use VPN term to refer to a technology as compared to a VPN service referred previously.

Things you will need before getting started

VPS with at least 512MB RAM, Debian 8.0 x64 and an assigned IP address.
There are plenty of VPS services on the internet. You do not need a high-performance one – just choose the one that has at least 512MB RAM. All of the parameters, like RAM, IP address and OS (Debian 8.0 x64) can be selected, when setting up your VPS. Debian 8.0 x64 operation system should be available in most VPS service providers. You should be able to setup a VPN server on other unix-based operation systems as well but our instructions are tailored to Debian 8.0 x64.

Root access to your VPS
You should have credentials in the following (similar) format:
IP Address: 111.112.113.114
Username: root
Password: 5cddeb4b0eef2708

Launch a proxy server on your Android phone. A good proxy server example can found here.

Use the newly generated IP address on your Android phone as a proxy in Multiloginapp.

How cool would it be to get a VPN server installed in one click?

Subscribe to Multiloginapp blog to receive a script for automatic VPN installation and all the necessary configurations along with other goodies

Residential IP proxy services

As you may have noticed, getting residential IP proxies is much more difficult than getting the datacenter ones and if you don’t want to go into all the hustle of setting everything up, you can just sign up for a paid service that provides residential IP connection. The most common downside of all residential IP proxy service currently available on the market is a relatively expensive price.

Luminati

Currently, Luminati is probably the biggest residential IP provider. The same company also runs one of the largest free VPN services in the world, which is called Hola. When users install this VPN, they agree to share their IP with Luminati customers. When you sign up for a Luminati paid subscription, you are able to access the IP of anyone, who has Hola installed on their computer. You will have access to IP addresses in all major cities worldwide. Multiloginapp fully supports connections to Luminati.io proxies. The main benefit of using this service is that you will have access to millions of resdential IPs worldwide, which you will be able to target by country, state and city. You can also access these residentail IPs simutaneously from multiple browser profiles at the same time. However, due to the fact how Luminati.io is designed, you will not always have access to a certain IP location in partular timeframes and each proxy session will last a maximum of 2-3 hours of conenctivity. Finally, Luminati.io seems to be the most expensive solution on the market to date.

Affiliate Stealth

Affiliate Stealth provides an RDSL Internet connection, which is managed remotely. They will provide you with a Windows machine with Teamviewer access. You will have to install Multiloginapp on it by yourself. You will be able to always get new IP addresses from the same city and the same provider, which ensures IP information consistency. Also, unlike in Luminati.io you will always have access to residential IPs independent of the timeframes. The biggest downside of this service when using for Multiloginapp is inability to use multiple connections with different IP addresses at once. This means you will have to work with one browser profile at a time in Multiloginapp. Also, some users may find running Multiloginapp from a server controlled by a third party unacceptable due to security or privacy reasons.

Summary

Too much to digest? Let’s recap what we have learned in this article. At the beginning, we mentioned, that your IP address is usually the first thing that websites log and look at because it is easily obtainable and it can reveal a lot of information about you. That is why we need to understand how to properly hide your IP address.

The two post popular datacenter IP solutions to hide your IP address are VPN and proxies

Both VPN and proxies can be bought from external providers or created on your own

You can easily setup your own proxy server by getting a VPS and following the instructions from above or running our custom script

Using proxies is the most popular and convenient way of changing IP address for Multiloginapp users. They are great if you want to keep your multiple browser profiles for longer periods and access them on a daily basis.

VPN exit node IP addresses are mostly known to popular web platforms and can be oftentimes blacklisted due to other users abusing the service. However, VPN can be beneficial is some cases, when you need access to a big pool of IPs around the world for a relatively cheap price.

Having an ADSL connection with dynamic IP address as a residential IP proxy solution remains inconsistent in implementation across multiple users due to problems with IP renewal happening sometimes.

Using a mobile 3G or 4G connection is a more practical solution than ADSL because it allows better control over IP renewal. You can control IP releases remotely by using two Android apps. Also, you can easily turn your 3G/4G mobile connection into a back-connect proxy by getting a VPS and following the instructions from above or running our custom script

If you are looking for a solution to access different accounts using residential or datacenter proxies, check out Multiloginapp. The software utilizes state-of-the-art counter-fingerprinting technology, which ensures the privacy of your online accounts regardless of what solution you are using to change your IP address.